John Major plays poker

[Charlie44]

I was Happier when City Scored at DTD than i was 30 mins later

lol  

Just had a good session - for me anyway.

Zoom 10NL 1168 hands $31.55 profit 27bb/100.

What do the football managers say - dont worry about your losses too much but don"t celebrate your wins too hard. I"m off to have a beer whilst watching PCA on c4.

[Charlie44]

I am finding that i"m not having enough time to give justice to my reviews etc. i.e everything apart from playing hands. So I"ve decided to reduce my target playing time by 1 hr per day and use that time for extra poker related activities. My current target will therefore reduce to 24k hands per month from 30K. The things I"m currently doing are listed below and I would appreciate"s everybody"s thoughts and what activities will most improve my game. I need to prioritise my very significant but somewhat limited time available.

A. Playing on-line hands (obv)
B. Playing live tournaments.
C. Reviewing hands played and identifying where I could improve my profit.
D. Placing any poker hands on APAT forum which I am not sure about and responding to any posts.
E. Review other people"s posts on APAT forum especially strategy posts and responding to them.
F. Using Poker Tracker to identify other weaknesses in my game.
G. Educating myself on best use of Poker Tracker to improve my game inc. development of huds etc.
H. Reading poker books - Currently Theory of Poker ( suggested by Noble 1 and the Snapper).
I. Watching relevant videos - currently Stars tips on playing zoom tables.

Anything else I should also be doing ? Advice welcome.

[Charlie44]

Initial feeling quite happy with my performance again tonight -

        1011 hands played $6.93 loss.
MTD    10,098               $45.19 profit    5.42 BB/100.

2 big losses

KKvAA pre which I cant get away from.
AK v AA with case ace on flop and SPR of 1.0 ( which I will have to review but I think played ok.)

I keep telling myself important thing is to play the hand well and the rest will take take care of itself in the long run.

[Charlie44]

Another session complete. Not much happening today I think I"m not making it happen enough. Red line like a sinking ship again.! Very small profit for today.
                                     
Month to date - 11,101 hands, (on target) $45.74 profit, 4.98BB/100 ( compared to 8BB/100 target.)

Really need to review agression and stats I think.

[Charlie44]

Did a bit of mannual investiagtion with my session yesterday.

Very surprised to find that of the $8 loss on non showdown hands all of it related to preflop hands - with $7.20 won and $14.95 lost on pre flop hands. Even though this may be an extreme example I am sure the pattern is similar throughout a lot of my sessions.

I think its feasible still to make a profit because you are then regularly playing with better hands post flop and at showdown. However having to overcome the handicap of the preflop loss plus the rake , totalling perhaps 12BB/100, before you can start making a profit, it is less likely that a long term good profit rate can be achieved.

So I need to address the problem which I plan to start doing straight away. Does anybody who uses PT4 know if I can easily pick up my preflop profit/loss (as opposed to non showdown profit) for each session, so that I can continue to monitor progress.  

[Charlie44]

Just an update on progress.

After identifying my leak with preflop losses, I have now developed a hud which I am comfortable with and gives me the info. I need. I have started 3 betting players who appear to be raising light in late position, but only where I have feel my holding is beating their range.  Also as recommended by Brendan I am calling in positon with a reasonable holding against a player who I think I can outplay postflop. Also I am stealing blinds more often against players who fold too often, but again only if I have a playable holding.

My stats below compare Fridays session to the overall stats for the month. The increase in agression can easily be seen which I am happy with. The loss on Friday was due to other issues not as a result of the extra agression.

                 Friday            Month to date
Profit           $-14.89            $69.57
Hands          794                  13,885
BB/100         -21.31              6.85
VPIP            16.07                13.23
PFR             13.15                10.11
3 Bet PFR       5.30                 3.79
2bet/fold PF* 52.94               60.41
4 bet pf  **    8.51                 4.70
Att to steal LP*** 40.32              34.82
Att to steal SB 45.45              24.40

*I have use the 2 bet/fold pf  stat as opposed to the fold to 3 bet, as the latter of course includes those where you fold to cold 3 bet.
**The 4 bet pf figure of course includes in its population those occassions where I am facing a cold 3 bet. I could have used the raise/4 bet stat but this probably hides the lost opprtunities for 4 betting cold.

***Also I couldn"t see the "attempt to steal button" but I think the "attempt to steal late position" is a good alternative.

The MTD hands played are above target and the MTD BB/100 is close to target (6.85 compared to 8 ). So overall I am very happy with progress made to date. I am learning a lot and enjoing it. What more can I ask ?

My progres to date has I am sure been all the more because of apaters" help and advice. So please keep it coming. Further observations and advice very welcome.

[Charlie44]

Doing a bit more digging today on my stats. Looking at results from 10th September. The preflop loss of $6.85 on first glance again seems a concern. It was interesting however that of the 139 pre flop raises only 38 appear to have resulted in a gain of blinds unopposed. 73 of them saw a flop. However for those 73 hands I made a profit of $19.96, which is more than the $10.95 I would have gained if the raises resulted in everybody folding. Of course if they had been folded my preflop result would have become $4.10 profit, but my overall profit for the day would have been less. Confused ? so am I  

My late position attempts to steal of 44% (37/83) and SB steal 47% (9/19) are fine now I think, but I definitely need to increase my 3 bet rate of 3.3% (14/418) .

Any observation or advice welcome.

[Charlie44]

Felt the session went well today with results below :

                     Today        Month to date
Preflop profit       -$2.70       -86.92
Overall Profit         $0.57      48.13
Hands                  816         15,272
BB/100                 0.70            4.54
VPIP                  15.88         13.41  
PFR                    12.78         10.32
3 Bet PFR             5.02          3.90
2bet/fold PF        61.54          62.10
4 bet pf              2.63           4.38
Att to steal LP     46.88         35.34
Att to steal SB     52.94         26.02


Whilst the profit wasn"t great, there were a number of things I was happy about -

As the stats show I am becoming more agressive in position. This is having the effect of reducing my inherent daily preflop losses.

My allin adjusted result as was actually 10.49, as I got it all in on the flop with the nut straight but got outdrawn.

I generally felt I have improved this month but the main thing I"ve learnt about poker over the past couple of weeks is that there is a lot I don"t know.


Reviewing previous forum discussion I came across these comments from Brendan today -


Preflop.

Look for reasons to choose your best option. In this exact spot my thought process would be...

Does villain open too wide in this position, if so, 3b will turn a profit.

Does villain play well post flop, does he cb either too much or too little, if so, I"ll flat knowing I can win my fair share without hitting.

It didn"t sink in really at the time. But I really believe you need to get players away from their strengths, and into their weaknesses. Against the regs you would probably be happy to 3 bet them preflop and get them to fold and winning 3bbs or so , but somebody who is weak you probably want to be playing them post flop especially in position, with a good chance of winning more from them. Does this make sense ?

[Charlie44]

Not a good start to the session. 10th hand AK,  A high flop,  villain has ... AA.  Hunderd hands later AK, K high flop, villain has ...AA. Hey ho :"(

[Charlie44]

Just been stacked again with AK. Have given up for the day otherwise I will be playing on tilt. I think I should have got away from at least from some of the hands - will review and post later.

[AAroddersAA]

You get days like this though as you know mate. Well done on leaving it for the day as we can all end up a little bit tilted when that kind of thing happens. Just coolers though by the sound of it nothing to get concerned about. Sounds like you have done well so far this month loving the way you kept working on the stats etc and been ready to take the good advice offered. This is a winning trait.

[Charlie44]

Had a good day all round today after the disastorous day yesterday.

Went to the cinema today and watched "Rush". Very absorbing film about the duel between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda in formula 1 during the 70s. A must see for any F1 fans and very watchable storyline for those who are not.

Late back from this so decided just to get straight back into playing hands, and give the reviews a miss.  And it paid off with a good session today. Decided to play more my normal game today to get confidence back. Just tried to concentrate on the fish and and it paid off, even if it did reduce my agression levels,and preflop profit.

                     Today        Month to date
Preflop profit      -7.20          -106.20
Overall Profit       21.95            35.16
Hands                1,009           16,470
BB/100                21.75             3.52
VPIP                  14.44              13.48
PFR                    10.43            10.32
3 Bet PFR            1.83               3.75
2bet/fold PF        57.14              61.34
4 bet pf               6.52             4.44
Att to steal LP     30.86            34.93
Att to steal SB     33.33            26.61

Will carry out the post mortem on yesterdays hands tomorrow (or should that be later today ) to see if I should have got away from them.




 

[AAroddersAA]

Well done Mike great job to get straight back to winning ways. Volume also looks very good what VIP level will you achieve this month? Will you get Goldstar. What will you do with the FPP you are earning?

[Charlie44]

Well done Mike great job to get straight back to winning ways. Volume also looks very good what VIP level will you achieve this month? Will you get Goldstar. What will you do with the FPP you are earning?

Cheers Steve. Thanks for the support.

Will pass silver status level for this month in next day or two. Think I will need to be playing 2 tables or move up to 25NL to be achieving gold star. Though I do expect to get $50 stellar award soon - perhaps later this month.

I plan to take out half of the total of my profit and bonuses at the end of each month and build up my bankroll with the rest.

[Charlie44]

Reasonably solid session but with small profit today though again lacking aggression. Def. need to bring that back in to halt these preflop losses.

                     Today        Month to date
Preflop profit      -7.86        -113.95
Overall Profit       $3.01         $38.17
Hands                1,007        17,477  (target 24k for month)    
BB/100                2.99            3.49 (target 8 )
VPIP                 13.01           13.50
PFR                    9.98           10.30
3 Bet PFR            1.84            3.64
2bet/fold PF        58.33          61.20
4 bet pf               2.63            4.35
Att to steal LP     28.17           34.58
Att to steal SB     42.86           27.84

On schedule to hit hands played target for month. Plan to go to local casino tomorrow, so wont be playing on-line.